Determining a unique spatial relationship of a medical device to a further object

Abstract

The present embodiments relate to a method for determining a unique spatial relation of a medical device to an object. The medical device includes a registration mechanism with a first determination of the spatial relation of the medical device to the object by the registration mechanism by a first method for determining a relation of this kind, and with a second determination of the spatial relation of the medical device to the object by the registration mechanism by a second method for determining a relation of this kind. The second method is based on a physical principle of action different from that of the first method, with an evaluation of the results of the first and second determinations with respect to conformance by the registration mechanism, and, on the determination of a prespecified degree of conformance between the results, with a final determination of the spatial relation from the results of the first and second determinations by the registration mechanism to increase the safety of the medical device during operation in spatial interaction with a object.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present patent document claims the benefit of DE 102015206511.1, filed on Apr. 13, 2015, that is hereby incorporated by reference in its entiretyBACKGROUND[0002]The present embodiments relate to a method for determining a unique spatial relation of a medical device to an object. The medical device includes a registration mechanism. The embodiments also relate to a medical device with a registration mechanism by which a spatial relation of the medical device to an object may be determined by a first method for determining a relation of this kind.[0003]In medical scenarios, there may be interaction between at least one medical device and an object (e.g., a patient or another medical device). At the same time, in many cases, it is decisive that a medical device has a prespecified unique spatial relation to the object so that movements of the medical device or a movable component of the medical device take place in a precise relative posi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0019]In an embodiment, the medical device is a robotic device and the second method is a haptic method. With the haptic method, the robotic medical device (e.g., an end effector of a kinematic chain of the medical device) approaches at least one predetermined position or pose on the object in order to determine the spatial relation of the medical device to the object. A predetermined pose may be understood to be a predetermined position with a predetermined orientation. Safety is increased precisely for dangerous medical devices (e.g., robotic medical devices). Because the second method is a haptic method and no special measuring equipment is required (e.g., similar to with an image-based method for the registration), the haptic method may also be used for the registration of conventional robotic medical devices. In the case of doubt, registration of conventional robotic medical devices may be performed with slight adaptations (e.g., such as with firmware or software updates). The second method may be used particularly flexibly. The predetermined position or pose may also be specified depending on the respective object. For example, the method for the registration may not only be used in medical robotic devices that are already in use in prespecified medical scenarios, but may also be configured to the object. The safety is increased for a plurality of different medical devices and different objects. It has been found that haptic met...

Problems solved by technology

For example, a registration that takes place using a contact-free method in an image-based manner (e.g., with the “Mako” robot using fluorescence-based markers) may be afflicted with errors.

An error of this kind is particularly critical if the error may have a fatal outcome.

For example, errors may occur in a robotic minimally invasive surgical intervention by a medical device in which a medical robotic device performs autonomous movements in the patient or in the vicinity o...

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